Android will now notify you if a caller impersonates someone you know.

Android warns you now when a caller pretends to be someone you know

Also Google photos and GoPlay Books get new AI-based updates.

Google adds new features to Android before it later released its next big update, Android 17. In addition to a more sophisticated version of the detection of fraudulent calls, Android users also benefit from the updates for Google Photos and Circle to Search, which the company announced at the beginning of the year, as well as from a new AI-based summary feature in Google Play Books.

Android has been able to warn you since 2024 when you make a fraudulent call, but the new feature to detect fake calls from Google goes one step further. As part of an update of Google’s phone app, Android users are now warned to stop a call when a caller issuing himself as someone from his contact list. “If a contact calls you and you use both Phone by Google, its device sends a silent confirmation signal to your device in real time to check if the call is legitimate and actually comes from the device of contact,” Google writes in a blog in which he explains the new function. “Since this digital handshake uses the end-to-end encrypted Rich Communication Services (RCS) technology, it is completely private.”

If your phone app does not receive the handshake, it will show you a warning so that you can stop your call immediately. According to Google, the detection of fake calls is available on devices with Android 12 and higher that use the phone app. The company also plans to provide its Personal Safety app to users under 13 years of age so that they can display their medical and emergency contact information on their lock screen and quickly activate security features such as car accident detection.

Apart from improving security on Android, two important apps receive new AI-based skills. Google introduces its “Garderobe” function for Google photos and gives the app the opportunity to catalog the garments you wear on photos and help you try them virtually. By now, Google Play Books can provide context-related information about everything you highlight, and summarize what you are reading. The Google Photos Garden is available on selected devices in the USA, India and Brazil with Android 10 and above. The new AI knowledge of Google Play Books is now being introduced for selected titles in English.

Google also updates existing tools such as Circle to Search and Quick Share. As the company introduced on Samsung phones in February, Circle to Search can now identify several elements in one picture and look for it instead of just one. The problem of Google with which the file sharing function Quick Share with AirDrop from Apple works, is now also available on more Android devices. And if you don't find these updates satisfactory, Emoji Kitchen can create new emojis in Gboard, Google's software keyboard.